Hot And Cold was the fourth full-length cassette release by the duo of Hal McGee and Debbie Jaffe. It was a compilation of Viscera songs that had appeared on various international compilations. They were all recorded between April 1984 to May 1985. Released on the Cause And Effect label.

Hot And Cold is also available in its original audiocassette format:
http://www.halmcgee.com/HalTapesCassetteCatalog.html

"Nation" appeared on Beyond Step One, a compilation by Sound Of Pig Music, of Flushing, New York. Sound Of Pig was one of the quintessential hometaper labels of the underground scene in the 1980s, operated by our dear friend Al Margolis. Some of the other artists on the the tape were Walls Of Genius, Het Zweet, Unovidual, Muslimgauze, F/i, ABC Mutes, Psychodrama and X Ray Pop. "Nation" was a song I composed about how all of our best friends lived far from us, in other parts of the U.S. or in foreign lands; that our true nation was composed of these unique individuals who created such personal, weird and idiosyncratic music.

"Stupid Bright Day" by Viscera was one of 27 tracks on the Objekt No. 2 International Compilation, put out by the Ladd-Frith label of Eureka, California. Brian Ladd and Julie Frith were two of our closest and dearest friends at the time. They recorded lots of great punk- and industrial-inflected rock under the name Psyclones. Their Ladd-Frith label was one of the great indie labels of the early 80s. Some of the other artists were Vox Populi!, Smersh, If Bwana, Twa Digs Under Paris, Problemist, Walls Of Genius, Psyclones, Asmus Tietchens, F/i, Human Flesh, Schlafengarten, Architects Office, Blackhouse, Pacific 231, Minimal Man.

"Unjustly Accused" was a satirical song I wrote after reading an interview with William Bennett of Whitehouse in Unsound magazine. It appeared on a two tape compilation that accompanied the Zamizdat Trade Journal #2, of Boulder, Colorado. ZTJ was published by Joel Haertling and members of the group Architects Office. Other recording artists on the tape included Etant Donnes, Human Flesh, Gerechtigkeits Liga, K2, L'Eponge Synthetique, Smegma, Psyclones/ Schlafengarten, Architects Office, Merz, DDAA, Fetus In Fetu, Pacific 231, Neo Zelanda, Stan Brakhage, Camera Obscura, Haters.

Deb's song "IDBM" was on Alain Neffe's Bloody But Chic compilation. Other people on the tape included Psyclones, Der Akteur, F/i, Architects Office, DDAA, Merzbow, Magthea, Human Flesh, Nisus Anal Furgler, Gerechtigkeits Liga, The Starkman and 15 others. Neffe's Insane Music (Trazegnies, Belgium) was one of the first great underground tape labels, and he was one of the grandfathers of the hometaper movement. He was putting out tapes in the mid 1970s into the 80s under various names and in various groups such as Pseudo Code, Human Flesh, Bene Gesserit, Cortex, M.A.L., Japanese Genius and others. In the 1980s he released lots of great essential compilations featuring early recordings by artists who have gone on to some popularity and notoriety, such as Bourbonese Qualk, Merzbow, Legendary Pink Dots, Colin Potter, Front Line Assembly, etc.

"Silent Friend" originally appeared on the Pas De Deux compilation LP record, released by Auxiliio De Cientos, Spain. Other artists included Algebra Suicide, Psyclones and Bene Gesserit. "Silent Friend" also appeared on RRRecords' 3XLP record box set compilation God Bless America (Lowell, Massachusetts).

Unfortunately, we did not list in the liner notes of Hot And Cold which compilation every song appeared on; and I just can't remember all of them. Perhaps in time I will re-discover this information.

The title track "Hot And Cold" is a freaky song based on a story about another bad LSD trip. I took a hit of acid before going to see William S. Burroughs and John Giorno give a spoken word performance at the Vogue Theater in Indianapolis. When the drug kicked in my face felt like it was burning up. I had to run to the bathroom to splash cold water on my face. I got back to my seat and my face started feeling like it was freezing. I ran back to the bathroom to dowse my face in hot water. This went on all evening. All the while, as I was tripping out, my mind kept ticking off the numerals 0, 1 and 2. I kept thinking that these were the primary numbers around which all existence revolved, or some such nonsense...

Side A

Stupid Bright Day
Wasted And Wanted
Nation
Vertigo
No Meaning

Side B

Silent Friend
IDBM
Plague Buckets
Unjustly Accused
Hot And Cold


This audio is part of the collection: Community Audio
It also belongs to collection:

Artist/Composer: Viscera (Debbie Jaffe and Hal McGee)
Keywords: Hal McGee; Debbie Jaffe; Viscera; Cause And Effect; cassette; Cassette Culture; DIY; Dog As Master; Master/Slave Relationship; homemade music; experimental; electronic

Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

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